Thread by @BFriedmanDC

Last week Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, went on a local far-right radio show and said some things. This included disparaging the Dallas Community Police Oversight Board on which I sit with 14 other confirmed city appointees.

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I won't call Mr. Mata a liar, as I think it's probably better to take the charitable route and assume he's simply severely misinformed. But let's dig into what he said. You can listen to the full @WBAP247NEWS interview here: wbap.com/2022/08/03/ric…

First, here's how Mr. Mata framed the entire debate: He claims the media doesn't cover positive stories about police. He used the recent Dallas Love Field shooting as an example, saying "It didn’t even make the national news. You didn’t see that on Good Morning America."

I did a quick google search of the Dallas Love Field shooting and Good Morning America. Here's the story that ran. GMA also published at least three more stories online. So we know right off the bat Mr. Mata is misinformed or else operating in bad faith.
goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/act…

As far as Mr. Mata's claim that the story "didn't even make the national news," another google search shows multiple national news stories covering the event. So again, he is either badly misinformed or not being truthful.

Now let's see what he said about the Dallas Police Oversight Board (which he repeatedly misnames). Mr. Mata begins by saying no one on the Board understands "what we [DPD] do, nor have they taken any educational courses on our policy, or our use of force continuum." That's false.

But before I get to that, I want to get one fact out of the way: Civilian oversight of public servants, whether it's through a police oversight board or the Senate Armed Services Committee, does not require officials to have the same experiences as those they oversee. Full stop.

Board members without armed public service experience are no less valuable than those who have it. In many cases, their varied experiences make them more suited to overseeing armed public servants than if the Board were, say, all retired cops. I'm sorry Mr. Mata doesn't get that.

In any event, his statement was false. ALL 14 active members of the Dallas Police Oversight Board have gone through DPD's course on use of force. Every single Board member. We've been through the classroom instruction, the simulator and we've used simunitions.

In addition, at least one Board member recently did a ride-along. I don't know how many have in total. But Mr. Mata's assertion of "none whatsoever" is untrue.

Personally, I've not yet done a ride-along, but I've been in more close-range street shootouts than most DPD officers.

In fact, I've had to enforce order in cities where the police department had collapsed. Where I didn't speak the language. Where residents were more heavily armed than in Dallas. And I've raised my weapon a number of times and had to make the decision whether or not to shoot.

Mr. Mata doesn't seem to know or care who's on the Dallas Community Police Oversight Board. But we are professionals comprising a cross-section of Dallas. We are lawyers, PhDs, former military officers, a former Texas Ranger, clergy and others who care deeply about our community.

Lastly: Mr. Mata said members of the Board are "gonna get on their social media, just like they did last week, and they’ll gaslight the community."

Really? Let's see an example. Or maybe he thinks that's what this thread is. But I think it's just setting the record straight.